Matchmaker
by elisclare
Summary: On the outside looking in; see the effect Eclare's relationship has on the one who assigned them as partners in the first place./ONESHOT.


_**Hello! I wrote this lovely little one-shot for you today.**_

_**It is Eclare, but it's a little different from what you were probably expecting. You see, this is in Mrs. Dawes' POV. After she assigned them partners, she watched them fall in love. See what effect it had on her. This is an out-side looking in kind of thing, like what the Eclare relationship looks like to us. You can just feel the sparks flying, right? Well, so can Mrs. Dawes. Enjoy. Read. Review, if it floats your boat. :)**_

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Mrs. Dawes sat in her chair, watching the students shuffle into the classroom. Some of the new ones sat down quietly, keeping to themselves as they eyed each other with curiosity. Some of them set their bags and books down, rushing back into the hall to enjoy the last few minutes of summer freedom before the bell rang. Mrs. Dawes sipped her coffee absentmindedly. She was supposed to be writing the daily work on the board and planning the first project for her English students, but the papers lay untouched and unshuffled on her desk.

She was excited for the new year, but also saddened. You see, Mrs. Dawes was remembering a day three years prior to this one. The first day of school, the day Elijah Goldsworthy and Clare Edwards met.

The partnership she assigned them started out for purely educational purposes. She assigned Eli to Clare because her works were becoming impersonal and safe, hardly the type of thing to keep people on the edge of their seats. After reading through some students papers, Eli's, although a bit wordy, really stood out. Everything he wrote was raw and passionate. Sometimes, although she would never admit it to anyone, she took Eli's assignments home over the weekend for personal reading, leaving her romance novels collenting dust on the bookcase. When she realized this, she quickly paired them up, hoping he could get Clare to open up and be more confident in her writing.

She didn't know he would change her so significantly as a person, too.

Mrs. Dawes watched them. She watched their annoyance of each other grow into tolerance, that grew into intrigue, that grew into deep friendship and eventually, love. She had never seen two people so madly in love. They were absolutely perfect for each other, but not in the fairy-tale kind of way.

Their relationship was never perfect; how could it be when they were so different? When they were fighting, anyone could feel the coldness in the room. And it was cold often. Mrs. Dawes had never been an especially snoopy person, she respected her students. But she couldn't help but wonder what was wrong, though she had heard through the teacher rumor mill that Clare Edwards was having family problems, and that Eli had transferred to Degrassi after a traumatic incident a year prior. She knew it must have been tough for the both of them, but she had watched as they pulled through it together, always coming out strong.

What Clare and Eli shared was something Mrs. Dawes was envious of, considering she had been through two divorces and was about to start the process of another. She had spent her whole life searching for someone that would love her as Eli did Clare- but she supposed some people just weren't that lucky, not to even watch someone else have that kind of love.

She had never seen it in her lifetime before that year, and knew that she probably never would again. They fought so much, but even through it, the anger they held toward the other was not for selfish reasons. They worried too much about each other, Mrs. Dawes could pick up on that much.

The way Eli watched her made Mrs. Dawes heart melt. It was the kind of thing you see in movies. His gaze was protective and loving, sweet and feirce. His body corresponded to every movement she made when they were sitting next to each to each other. His grades even slipped a little bit from watching Clare so much in class, but Mrs. Dawes didn't dare call him out on it, not even once. She was an brutally honest person, but their relationship pulled her heart strings. That partnership was the best one she had ever assigned. Even when the next semester started up, she hadn't the heart to seperate them. Beisdes, her initial assumptions were correct, Clare and Eli's papers were, together, some of the best work she had ever read in all her years as a teacher and just a litterate person in general.

It made her a little sad when the year was over, and her and Eli walked out the front doors, hand in hand, to enjoy the summer. They made her day a little brighter, and now she was going to spend the summer with her awful, dead beat husband in their stuffy house.

But for the next two years, this process was repeated, and she even spoke to the principal about keeping them in the same classes, and to their english teachers about assigning them as partners. They were all a little skeptical and on the fence about making the decision, but whenever Mrs. Dawes told them the story, they couldn't refuse.

And then came the final day, of the final year. Clare and Eli walked out of the doors of Degrassi for a final time, hand in hand, off to college, off to a life together.

She had never felt so emotional. Was it healthy for her to be so...dare she say it...obsessed with student relationships?

Perhaps, with this one, it wasn't unatural for a writer to get swept away by a true story of romance in their lives. So she questioned her sanity no further.

Mrs. Dawes was brought back to the present as the bell rang, and students scurried into their seats, quieting down, and waiting for the teacher to get up and start droning on about Shakespeare or something. But Mrs. Dawes didn't get up right away. Instead, she picked up the small peice of paper on her desk, with a sentence written in Clare's small, neat hand. She smiled at it and set it down, picking up the attached picture. It was a snapshot of the three of them sitting on the couch. Eli had his arm around Clare, who was holding the small infant lovingly in her arms, smiling at the camera. Eli wasn't, though. He was looking at the baby, a smile that wasn't meant for the camera playing at his lips. He had that same look in his eye, the one of feirce protection and love. It was a perfect picture, and Mrs. Dawes would hold it dear to her heart forever.

Finally, she set it down, standing up and mving sround her desk to sit on the edge of it. She looked out at the class, the students faces. She could see the shy ones, the confident ones, the "preps", and the "losers". None of it mattered to her, though. If anyone knew that opposites attracted, it was Mrs. Dawes.

"Hello, class. I am Mrs. Dawes, and I'll be your English teacher for this year. I know you're probably expecting me to tell you to write about your summer, or me tell you the classroom rules, or something that you normally do on the first day of school. You are going to write an assignment, I can tell you that right now."

A mutual groan came from the class.

"But first, I want to tell you a story. And after I finish, I don't want any questions, I don't want any talking. I want you to write. Write about anything. It doesn't have to be about the story, or anything related. I just want you to write. It's due by the end of class." Slowly, a hand raised, and Mrs. Dawes' eye darted toward the pretty, blue eyed girl.

"Yes?"

"Excuse me, miss," she asked, smiling softly. "When are we going to be assigned out English partners? And...how are you going to make those choices?"

"Well, funny you should ask. That's what the story is about."

The girl seemed confused, but content with her answer for now.

With one final glance on the peice of paper on her desk, she started the story of the two lovers, the sentence on the letter replaying over and over in her head.

_~Thank you, for everything, matchmaker. ~_

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**END! :) So what did you think of this? Tell me in a review!**


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